Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
The majority of the definitions in this glossary came from the following source:
Roskelly, Hephzibah and David A. Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing, 2nd ed (285-295).
Pearson Custom Publishing, USA: 2010.
*Definitions which did not come from Everyday Use appear in italics.
absolutes: words such as “always,” “never,” “all,” and “none.”
allusion: A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or to some particular body of
knowledge.
analogy: Inductive reasoning in which we assume that if two instances are alike in a number of
important points, they will be alike in the point in question.
anecdote: A brief narrative offered in a text to capture the audience’s attention or to support a
generalization or claim.
anticipated objection: The technique a writer or speaker uses in an argumentative text to
address and answer objections, even though the audience has not had the opportunity to voice
these objections.
appeal: One of three strategies for persuading audiences—logos, appeals to reason; pathos,
appeal to emotion; and ethos, appeals to ethics.
appeal to authority: In a text, the reference to words, action, or beliefs of a person in authority
as means of supporting a claim, generalization, or conclusion.
 argument: A carefully constructed, well-supported representation of how a writer sees an issue,
problem, or subject.
audience: The person or persons who listen to a spoken text or read a written one and are
capable of responding to it.
begging the question: The situation that results when a writer or speaker constructs an argument
on an assumption that the audience does not accept.
claim: The ultimate conclusion, generalization, or point that a syllogism or enthymeme
expresses. The point, backed up by support, of an argument.
concession: The act of conceding or yielding, as a right, a privilege, or a point or fact in an
argument.
concede: To acknowledge as true, just, or proper; to admit.
conclusion (of syllogism): The ultimate point or generalization that a syllogism expresses.
connotation: The implied meaning of a word, in contrast to its directly expressed “dictionary
meaning.”
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
context: The convergence of time, place, audience, and motivating factors in which a piece of
writing or a speech is situated.
data (as evidence): Facts, statistics, and examples that a speaker or writer offers in support of a
claim, generalization, or conclusion.
deduction / deductive reasoning: Reasoning that begins with a general principle and concludes
with a specific instance that demonstrates the general principle. Reasoning from the general to
the particular.
denotation: The dictionary definition of a word, in contrast to its connotation, or implied
meaning.
diction: Word choice, which is viewed on scales of formality/informality,
concreteness/abstraction, Latinate derivation/Anglo-Saxon derivation, and denotative
value/connotative value.
effect: The emotional or psychological impact a text has on a reader or listener.
enthymeme (EN-thuh-meem): Logical reasoning with one premise left unstated.
ethos: The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator.
evidence: the facts, statistics, anecdotes, and examples that a speaker or writer offers in support
of a claim, generalization, or conclusion.
example: An illustration or incident offered in support of a generalization, claim, or point.
extended analogy: An extended passage arguing that if two things are similar in one or two
ways, they are probably similar in other ways as well.
generalization: A point that a speaker or writer generates on the basis of considering a number
of particular examples.
genre: A piece of writing classified by type—for example, letter, narrative, eulogy, or editorial.
hyperbole: An exaggeration, or overstatement, for effect.
induction / inductive reasoning: Reasoning that begins by citing a number of specific instances
or examples and then shows how collectively they constitute a general principle. Reasoning that
moves from a number of particulars to a general conclusion.
inductive leap: Because we cannot test every instance (past, present, future), we take the leap
from “most” or “some” to “all.” We reach a generalization.
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
inference: A conclusion that a reader or listener reaches by means of his or her own thinking
rather than be direct statement in a text.
intention: The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text—for example, to clarify
difficult material, to inform, to convince, or to persuade. Also called aim and purpose.
irony: Writing or speaking that implies the contrary of what is actually written or spoken.
jargon: The specialized vocabulary of a particular group.
Latinate diction: Vocabulary characterized by the choice of elaborate, often complicated words
derived from Latin roots.
litotes (LIE-toh-tees): Understatement—for example, “Her performance ran the gamut of
emotion from A to B.”
logic: The art of reasoning.
logos: The appeal of a text based on the logical structure of its argument or central ideas.
mood: The feeling that a text is intended to produce in the audience.
occasion: The part of context also referred to as time and place.
pathos: The appeal of a text to the emotions or interests of the audience.
persona: The character that a writer or speaker conveys to the audience; the plural is personae.
persuasion: The changing of people’s minds or actions by language.
premise, major: The first premise in a syllogism. The major premise states an irrefutable
generalization.
premise, minor: The second premise in a syllogism. The minor premise offers a particular
instance of the generalization state in the major premise.
pun: A play on words. Types of puns include, for example, anataclasis, words that sound alike
but have different meanings (“The spoiled turkey meat was fowl most foul”) and syllepsis, a
word used differently in relation to two other words it governs or modifies (“Bright lights attract
flies and celebrity watchers”).
purpose: The goal a writer or speaker hopes to achieve with the text—for example, to clarify
difficult material, to inform, to convince, and/or to persuade. Also called aim and intention.
qualifiers: words such as “probably,” “presumably,” and “generally.”
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
refutation: In ancient Roman oratory, the part of a speech in which the speaker would anticipate
objections to the points being raised and counter them.
 rhetoric: The art of analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer, speaker, reader, or
listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective;
the specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful,
and effective for readers or listeners in a situation.
rhetorical choices: The particular choices a writer or speaker makes to achieve meaning,
purpose, or effect.
rhetorical mode: Formal patterns for organizing a text. The traditional rhetorical modes are
description, narration, exposition, and argumentation; exposition is frequently subdivided into
categories such as comparison/contrast, classification, and division.
rhetorical question: A question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead
to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question about it.
rhetorical situation: The convergence in a situation of exigency (the need to write), audience,
and purpose.
rhetorical triangle: A diagram showing the relations of writer or speaker, reader or listener, and
text in a rhetorical situation.
sarcasm: The use of mockery or bitter irony.
slang: Informal language, often considered inappropriate for formal occasions and text.
speaker: The person delivering a speech, or the character assumed to be speaking a poem.
stance: A writer’s or speaker’s apparent attitude toward the audience.
style: The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect.
support: In a text, the material offered to make concrete or to back up a generalization,
conclusion, or claim.
syllogism (SIH-luh-jih-zuhm): Logical reasoning from inarguable premises.
syntax: The order of words in a sentence.
tautology: A group of words that merely repeats the meaning already conveyed.
tests for generalization: (1) A fair number of instances must be investigated. (2) The instances
investigated must be typical. (3) If negative instances occur, they must be explained. *Show that
they are not typical and, therefore, need not be considered as significant.
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
thesis: The main idea in a text, often the main generalization, conclusion, or claim.
thesis statement: A single sentence that states a text’s thesis, usually somewhere near the
beginning.
tone: The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject matter.
verisimilitude: The quality of a text that reflects the truth of actual experience.
voice: The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer’s or
speaker’s persona.
warrant: In Toulmin’s model of argumentation, the general statement that establishes a
trustworthy relationship between the data and the claim; it is a fundamental assumption (similar
to the major premise in formal logic) on which a claim can be made and supported. In an
argument the claim and data will be explicit, but the warrant is often implied, especially if the
person making the argument assumes that the audience accepts the warrant.